This years 48 hours of Film-making is back on in New Zealand. The challenge is for independent teams (not Peter Jackson or the Weta guys)  to create a short form video over one weekend.

The filmmakers do not know what genre they will required to create until the start of the competition. All creativity including the writing, story boarding, shooting and post production must occur within the 48 hours beginning Friday 8th May 2009. Each team competes within 7 city groups, Auckland, Hamilton, Gisborne, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin as well as another group for Out of Towners.

A few days later the short films will be shown to the audience in heats to play off for a chance to be in the City finals where they will be judged by a team of professional film makers. The competiton includes winners for each city group as well as a crazy Peter Jackson Wildcard competition. So get out your VHS copy of Meet the Feebles.

Last year over 600 teams competed in the competition creating a range of films, you can view all the winners in the screening room here.

Some of the guidelines include:

• DO NOT take prop guns/knives/weapons out in public places. This is a really bad idea that could end up with you being arrested or worse. Even if you have notified the police that this is what you are planning on doing, they have to respond if someone claims to have seen someone with a weapon and doesn’t understand you are making a film, and it will be a hassle. Just don’t do it. The police have been pretty accommodating but after previous armed offender call outs you may just find yourself being charged or at the very least getting a large bill for wasting their time.
• Unless you have a pyrotechnics licence and a registered safety officer on set, DO NOT consider trying to do any sort of real explosion, we don’t care how small. If you want to do anything but it doesn’t look or feel safe – just don’t do it. Don’t be stupid. Play smart, play safe.

Last years winner were a group of faux street rappers doing a finger dance face off. Here is the 2008 winning film F*Dance from Puppy Guts in Wellington.

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